Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Thursday-December 22, 2011

When Derek Poundstone loaded this final stone, he won Fortissimus 2008. Now, the stone has been revealed to weigh more than the 517 lb. originally reported and Poundstone’s name will be added to the stone. Randall J. Strossen photo; MILO® cover courtesy of IronMind®.

To most it was a long shot, but resembling a human forklift, Poundstone proved worthy of his name, loaded the stone and basked in the glory of having won the contest - and was crowned “the modern day successor to Louis Cyr” by the Fortissimus organizing committee.

“But the story does not end with that amazing lift,” Paul Ohl, the president of Fortissimus, reported to IronMind®.

“By the 2008 tale of the tape, the Stone replica was reported at a weight of 517 lb. (235 kg). That is until Saturday, May 30, 2009, when Marc Lauzon, the 2009 Fortissimus Supervisor, had all the implements of the coming competition weighed in, using two different electronic scales, with Nancy Labrecque, the Staff Manager, and two technicians on hand as witnesses. With one astounding result: the Louis Cyr 1883 Stone was officially recorded at 530 lb. (241 kg), in excess of 13 lb. over last year's reported poundage.”

"A decision had to be made based on this information and that decision was unanimous: The Louis Cyr Stone will bear the name of Derek Poundstone next to the legendary strongman's own. It will be engraved with its actual weight of 530 lb. (241 kg) and it will be part of an exhibit on strongman that will open soon. The other option would have been to bring the weight down to 517 lb. (235 kg).
That would have been unfair to Poundstone's huge accomplishment. It was ruled out, considering the principle of ethics and the respect and truth we owe to the world strength community and above all to the concerned athlete."

"I immediately investigated the matter,” said Ohl, “and found out that last year the man in charge of bringing five Natural Stones of Strength down to the exact required poundage did the job on four of them with the exception of the now famous Louis Cyr Stone. Not knowing this at the time, we took the poundage for granted and reported it accordingly. This will never happen again. In fact, all the stones will be engraved after the elecronic weighing. That said, we are absolutely proud to report that Derek Poundstone has earned an all-time strongman record."